Netflix ditches Qwikster DVD rental spin off

One becomes two becomes one again

Instead, it will be staying as one big happy family, with its DVD rental and sales staying under the Netflix brand alongside its film streaming option.

Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, blogged, "It is clear that for many of our members, two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.

"This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster."

Globalise

We had hoped that the decision to separate the physical rentals and streaming entities meant that Netflix was on the verge of launching in the UK as Reed had said that the streaming-only Netflix would expand "hopefully on a global basis".

And that's not off the table; despite ditching the Qwikster name, the operational side of Netflix will be split and the DVD rental operation will still be moving premises.

When Netflix does eventually make it to the UK's webspace, it'll prove stiff competition for the incumbent streaming darling, LoveFilm.